Landisville, n.J., man sentenced to more than 19 years in prison
for assaulting post office employee during robbery

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 2, 2011

CAMDEN, N.J. – Lord T. Beyah, 48, of Landisville, N.J., was sentenced to 235 months in federal prison today for assaulting a postal employee during the robbery of a post office in Mizpah, N.J., on July 14, 2010, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Beyah, a/k/a “Chance Burgess,” was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler in Camden federal court after previously pleading guilty to an Information charging him with assaulting a postal employee with intent to rob a United States post office.

According to court documents and statements made in court:

In the early afternoon of July 14, 2010, a man later identified as Beyah entered the post office, jumped over the counter, displayed a knife, and demanded that a postal employee – the sole employee there at the time – give him money. After the postal employee gave him all the money in her cash drawer, Beyah demanded that she open the post office’s safe. The postal employee opened the safe and then attempted to flee by running out the rear door.

Beyah ran after and caught the employee, forcibly dragging her back into the post office and threatening her with a knife. After a struggle, the employee was able to pull the knife blade out of the knife and use it to stab Beyah two times in his lower left leg. Beyah then handcuffed the employee to a piece of postal equipment and fled the post office. The employee eventually freed herself and called 911.

The federal prison sentence is to run consecutively to the 10-year state prison sentence Beyah began serving in August 2011 in connection with a weapons charge out of Atlantic County, N.J. In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Kugler sentenced Beyah to five years supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Postal Inspector in Charge Karen V. Higgins in Philadelphia; along with the N.J. State Police, under the direction of Col. Rick Fuentes, Superintendent; and the Township of Hamilton Police Department, under the direction of Chief Stacy V. Tappeiner, for the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew T. Smith of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Camden.